A bright fireball blazed a smoky, steamy trail across the Florida sky Friday afternoon as it rushed to its final fate over Vinales, Cuba. Moments later, a loud sonic boom preceded the meteor breaking up and raining fragments down on the western end of the island nation.

Newly posted data from NASA and US government sensors say the bolide's collision with our atmosphere released as much energy as 1,400 tons of TNT.

Events - Ocean - Areas - Witnesses - Blast

Such powerful meteoroid events actually aren't all that rare, but they usually happen over the ocean or unpopulated areas with few potential witnesses. A more powerful blast was actually recorded when a meteor entered the atmosphere off the coast of Madagascar on Sept. 25.

The International Meteor Organization reports that hundreds of people witnessed the rare daytime fireball and 13 filed eyewitness reports from Fort Myers to the Florida Keys and off the coast of Cuba.